Listen to what Church is really saying

The Democratic Alliance leader of the Gauteng legislature, Lewis Bloom, recently wrote in support of Pope Benedict following the media controversy raised by the pontiffs statement on Aids prevention on his visit to Africa in March.

Mr Bloom quotes the pope as having said: If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through the humanisation of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another.

Nathan Geffen, from the Treatment and Action Campaign (TAC) criticised Mr Bloom for what he calls a poor appreciation of Aids science. His attempt to rescue the pope is flawed.

I was unaware that the pope needed rescuing. Mr Blooms flawed statistics aside, I think Mr Geffen failed to understand Mr Blooms point  and for that matter, the popes. Mr Bloom sums up the gist of their message when he says: A correctly used condom is obviously a barrier to the transmission of infectious fluids, but could easily engender a false sense of security that leads to risky sexual behaviour such as multiple partners For various reasons, including alcohol, an available condom may not be used in all these sexual encounters. In urban areas the attitude of false security is already prevalent; people act as if condomising is the solution to everything.

What the pope and Mr Bloom are questioning is not, for instance, the sterling job done by organisation like the TAC in raising Aids awareness, but the error of emphasising only the short-term measure of using condoms. The first two values of ABC strategy are submerged by the final C.

The lasting solution to this pandemic is not in expedient measures but in what in Uganda is called zero grazing (monogamist relationships) and delayed sexual debut. I know the TAC teaches that too, but they dont emphasise this nearly as sufficiently as the message of condoms  which is a half-measure.

As long as we dont adopt an attitude of behavioural change for better moral values we are fighting a losing battle. Unfortunately in our society the cancer of promiscuity and moral relativism runs to the bone, and as the fish, the rot is from the head  from leaders and heads of families.

The Church teaches that the only way to accord a sexual act its true purpose is when it is accompanied by love and commitment to a lasting relationship, such as the institution of marriage. To show the gravitas by which it holds this view, the Church raised the act of marriage into a sacrament.

The Church has always been against the now prevalent attitude of viewing the sexual act as recreational. Most people in our age clearly do not share the Churchs view. The fatal flaw they make is in judging the Church by their own standards. Many people, including Catholics, fail the standards of the Church, and not only in this but in many others issues also. But this does not mean the Church must lower its standards to pander to those of the world. The Church is not of the world, but in the world.

Whats amiss is not in the Church, but in us. Weve become relativists who live by base esteem of our perverted senses. Hence our commitments mean very little, because we shun the responsibility of real love, which is sacrifice. You cannot progress in love if you are only self-seeking and not prepared to put down your needs for the other; if youre not dependable, that is true to your word and serving.

The notion of love we follow most is that of romance, with our me-me-me attitude. Were pervertedly materialistic. We dont see as love that which does not spoil us with gifts. Our notion of love is defined only by receiving to the expense of giving. We are not a serving generation; hence everything connected to service fails in our times, from civil service to personal one.

Unless we assume the understanding that is taught by the Church, those such as Pope Benedict, who stick by what they preach, it will appear outdated and ridiculous. Then again, you dont become a pope by being slave to popular opinion and entertaining the flattery of worldly fame. The papacy is not a platform for those who seek mob applause. The sooner the media gets this, the better.